Sister Peter Claver (shown in the front row of this 1905 photo) was born Hannah Elizabeth Fahy to a large, actively Catholic family in Georgia. (Photo courtesy of the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.)
Although Catholicism’s presence in the South dates to the colonial era, by the nineteenth century Catholics were few and far between in most parts of the region, especially in rural areas, so much so that the church hierarchy sent priests to its southern parishes every few years to remind scattered parishioners of the importance of continued devotion. In the first half of the twentieth century, however, Catholics in the South began to evangelize, turning their attention to non-Catholics for conversion and recruiting a lay apostolate willing both to share its faith and to serve the poor and abandoned.
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